EU must step up migrant relocation, say Italy and Greece

Greece has urged EU member states to step up the relocation of migrants within the bloc and Italy has encouraged others to follow Germany's lead and accept more refugees.

“At the moment we have 7,000 people ready to be relocated and no answers from the EU member states obliged to accept them,” Greek migration minister Yannis Mouzalas told journalists on Tuesday (23 August).

Slovakia, which currently chairs the EU council presidency, vowed to push down the EU agenda discussions on a reform of the so-called Dublin asylum system that would see fines imposed on countries that refuse to take refugees.

Czech Republic and Poland also refuse to cooperate, saying that national governments should be able to relocate refugees on a voluntary basis.

Czech Republic has so far relocated four people from Greece. Slovakia has taken three and Hungary and Poland have not taken any at all.

Meanwhile, Italy’s interior minister Angelino Alfano told La Repubblica TV on Tuesday that Germany had promised to take ”hundreds of refugees” each month in an effort to save the scheme.

He praised chancellor Angela Merkel for wanting to be on the "right side of history" in welcoming more than a million refugees, even if it might cost her votes.

"We must remember that Germany already took in more than one million migrants in 2015. If it also takes in some of our [refugees] ... the message will be extremely strong, because if Germany can do it, then so can all those who have not put in the huge effort that Germany already has," Alfano said.

Merkel will meet the prime ministers of Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia on Friday, at a Visegrad summit in Warsaw.

Out of the promised 160,000, EU countries have so far took in 1,145 refugees from Greece and Italy, as the EU commission warns of humaniatian crisis in Greece and the deterioration of the situation in Italy.

The mandate for Operation Sophia, the EU's naval mission in the Mediterranean sea, ends in December. Demands to change it, including new rules on disembarkation, are set to be agreed within the next few weeks.

The European Commission says it is ready to boost spending in Morocco when it comes to stop migrant hopefuls from reaching Spain by boat. The money follows demands for help from Madrid as irregular arrival numbers spike in Spain.